Bicycle Friendly Community

Seattle, WA | Gold Level

Community Highlights: Seattle is a major player among the Bicycle Friendly Communities in the Pacific Northwest. The city’s new bicycle master plan is innovative and includes painting green bike lanes at a dozen locations and the 3.6 mile Chief Sealth Trail being made of recycled materials. The plan calls for a 455 mile network that would place 95 percent of Seattle’s residents within a quarater mile of a bike facility. Implementation has been aggressive, with more than 50 miles of bike lanes and sharrows installed in the last 2 years. The City has also sent out thousands of flyers and door hangers to inform and educate residents in advance of new bicycle facility installations in their neighborhood. These documents include time sensitive information about temporary parking restrictions on the front and information on the back about what bicycle lanes and sharrows are and how bicyclists and motorists should properly use these facilities. Additionally, 429 bike racks have been installed in the past 2 years, including 3 on-street bike corrals.

Bicycle ridership is being encouraged through a partnership with Cascade Bicycle Club and their program Bike Smart Seattle. This program includes targeted community outreach that will reach every household in the city. Each year the program will target two of six city zones with a neighborhood-based bicycle encouragement and education campaign to increase bicycle ridership, trips and safety. Residents will be able to request bicycle information kits that include a bicycle map, safety information and a calendar of community programming that will be personally delivered by a bicycle ambassador. Bicycle ambassadors will also lead neighborhood clinics and participate in special events such as low-cost helmet sales. The City has also contracted the Bicycle Alliance of Washington to distribute 20,000 of the Seattle Bicycling Guide Map per year. The map includes safety information for bicyclists and motorists. Seattle’s Police Departament has identified a lieutenant in the Traffic Division to serve as a point-person for bicycle issues and as a liaison to SDOT and the Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board.

Most Compelling Statement: “Seattle is honored that our work on enhancing cycling citywide has been recognized by the League of American Bicyclists," said Mayor Nickels. "Our Bicycle Master Plan laid out aggressive ten year goals to triple the amount of bike usage and reduce bike accidents by a third, which is essential given the impact of cars on the environment. Being honored as a gold-level Bicycle Friendly Community shows Seattle is in high gear in moving toward those goals.”